L to the I to the F to the E, G to the R to the O-U-P!

Firstly, I am amazingly blessed by the girls in my life group! I have so much love and respect for all of you! God has used you to convict me, teach me, encourage me, and spur me on to love and good deeds! I am truly honored to serve besides such women of faith.

Life group tonight was phenomenal and so I'm going to write up some of the notes and what we talked about, because it was so great I want everyone to hear it!!

God is For You!

James 1:16-18 --Every good and perfect thing comes from the Lord!

Romans 8:28 --He will use things for the good of His creation.

2 Peter 1:3-4 --God has given me everything I need to follow Him --> His promises enable us!

Everything has gone exactly according to His plan since the very beginning!

It's not one of those, "Oh a few rough patches here and there but He's still in control" but His purpose has been the same and His exact plan has gone forth!

Paul's example of giving others up to the Lord

Acts 20:32

Acts 14:23 & 26

1 Corinthians 1:7-9

Are we entrusting not only ourselves to the Lord, but also our brother's and sisters? Or do we have a controlling attitude, that somehow God's purpose for someone else depends on me? It is God who keeps people strong, not my words or my actions.

God is just as real to everyone else as He is to me. He can reveal Himself to whoever He wants, however He wants, whenever He wants.

Do you trust God is for your brother's and sisters the same way He is for you?

Psalm 31:5

Psalm 31:14-15

Psalm 56:3-11

David believed God was for him so much so that he gave himself over to the Lord.

David understood that God was the only one worthy to be trusted with his spirit!

God is the Father of our spirits, He is able to guard them. =)

When is it most difficult for you to trust that God is for you?

Is it not when we are going through trials?

This was shared at a faithwalkers seminar and some ladies relayed it to me. It has resonated true to me.

If you had the choice to get to know God in one of three ways... and your options were, on a beach, in a family setting

or, through a very difficult trial, you would always choose the trial, because you grow closer to someone when you understand the hurts of their heart, their pain, and their true self! When we're in pain, we don't have time or energy for a facade with our closest friends! It's the real deal!

I believe God is in complete control.

He made the world.

He knows the plans, actions, heart, and strategy of the enemy, so He understands exactly what Satan is, and has already won the victory over him!!!

So God's plan included everything that has happened up until this point.

There are no flops, only what is most necessary.

I believe God planned my hurts and my joys, my trials and my dreams, He planned them so that He and I could experience them together!

They are not mine, they are His, for the purpose of bringing me closer to His heart!

Isn't that what you want? to be closer to God's heart?

So I praise Him for those circumstances, and trials.

There were a lot of wonderful analogies shared tonight. I'm a sucker for analogies. I love them. So I'll share some =)

Trust... "I am the chair behind you. Fall on me - I'll be there. I promise" God says this to me.

Spiritual muscles!!

After a hard workout, you can feel you muscles aching, but ask athletes... They aim for this feeling because it means they are getting stronger! Don't you want your spiritual muscles to be in the best shape possible?

What is your spiritual weight lifting?

Refining- is for the purpose of making a metal pure. It requires a lot of heat, to bring the impurities to the surface, then they are scraped off...

We go through the fire of trials, were our impurities are brought to the surface so God can skim them off our our souls, and we in the end are more pure!

Also, a wonderful quote...

"God has plans - not problems - for our lives. Before she died in the concentration camp in Ravensbruck, my sister Betsie said to me, 'Corrie, your whole life has been a training for the work you are doing here in prison - and for the work you will do afterward.'

" The life of a Christian is an education for higher service. No athlete complains when the training is hard. He thinks of the game, or the race."

--Corrie Ten Boom

Also I just realized that the root of the word revelation is "reveal" ... and I get really excited when I remember I'm going to see my Savior face to face someday!!! =)

Sorry this entry is a bit scatter-brained =)